Bastard barre

I've been aware for quite a while now that some day I'm gonna have to tackle the F chord. It's a right of passage for every guitar player.
I've been putting it off and putting it off for ages now, but I've finally decided now's the time. Today I started devoting 15 minutes to it, well I'm actually starting on the fifth fret which is an A barre, when I master it there I'll move down a fret until I finally master the F.

It's really really tough, I just can't get the b string to ring out, I know that's normal so I'm not too worried, although it feels like I'll never be able to do it, my barre finger keeps lifting,  crooking more like just above the b string, and it aches really bad in the muscle above the thumb. Again, this is all normal so hopefully the strength will build up soon. I'm gonna try devote 15 mins a day to it, I reckon I'll nail it within a couple of weeks.

Second 12 bar blues riff attempt (E7, A7, B7)

I've been practising this like crazy over the last couple of days. I've played it a little faster this time with a capo on 3 (which I think means it's in the key of G). I've also changed the fingering for the A7 chord, I'm barring the D, G and B strings at the second fret and fretting the E string on the third fret with the little finger. The last vid I was playing a standard A7, (fretting the D and the B on the second fret)

Candy January

I've decided to record myself playing this chord progression every month to gauge improvement.

12 bar blues riff attempt

Today I started to learn a 12 bar blues riff with E7, A7 and B7 chords, played with a triplet shuffle style. (I think I played it with a capo on 3)
This is how I sound today playing it, it's not too bad but I'm guessing I'll consider it terrible in the not too distant future, hopefully anyway.....

Some recordings I've made along the way

One of the things I really love about the guitar is the absolute joy you get when you've been practising something over and over and eventually you get it. A couple of weeks after initially picking up the guitar I downloaded the tabs for 'Stand by me'. It took me a couple of hours to get the melody, it was really frustrating at first, but when I got it I felt like a virtuoso. I recorded myself playing it on the iphone because I was so impressed with myself. Listening to it now it's really awful, but that's what's great about recording yourself, you can get a really good idea of how you are improving. My goal is to be proud on Monday but cringe on Friday :)

I really love Paulo Nuitini, so I found a relatively easy lesson on youtube for Candy and started learning it early October. The chord progression is Am, Em, G and D7. I found this really tough to begin with but gradually got the hang of it. I made a recording in November and another in December, I'm happy with the minor improvement the vids show. I can play it pretty smoothly now (still struggle singing along though).

Right now I'm working on scales, and reading up on music theory and how scales work etc. My left hand is becoming really strong and my fingers are starting to stretch. Practising scales is really good for dexterity and stretching the fingers. I'm noticing my ability in terms of reaching frets improving almost daily.

Picking up the axe for the first time

Last June Judy's family came up for a barbecue and a few beers. Adam brought his guitar and we had a great sing song session in the living room. He's self thought and that night was the first time he played to an audience. I was really impressed and so wished I was able to just pick one up and play. I couldn't stop thinking about it and decided feck it, I'm gonna learn guitar.

I went online looking for a cheap beginners guitar, but was clueless as of what to buy, what type of strings, what to avoid etc... so I stuck a post up on irishpokerboards.com's bbv thread (general chat/advice thread) asking for advice. Within an hour or so hectorjelly (Darragh) posted offering to give me his guitar for free as he was travelling abroad and had no use for it anymore. I was gobsmacked by his generosity (another guy offered me all his guitar books and another offered me free lessons, IPB is a fantastic site), and I went down to his house and picked it up.

It's a beautiful guitar with a sweet sound. Although I didn't know it at the time, the action is quite high on it which is supposedly bad for beginners as it's more painful on the fingers, but I think high action is actually a good thing for a beginner as it causes calluses to develop far quicker. The pain was quite strong at first but it was short lived (three or four weeks) as opposed to long drawn out milder pain waiting on calluses to develop with a lower action.

I didn't really start with it until the beginning of September when I got back off holidays. I bought a dummies guide book and trawled Youtube vids but I was pretty much all over the place. I started to learn the basic chords, A D and E and found it really awkward switching from one to another. The tips of my fingers were stinging and had I not known that this was the norm I would've put the thing away for good. Every beginners article or vid online was telling me to not worry about it. I was trying to find tips on how to speed it up as I had read it could take up to six months for the calluses to develop.  I was pressing the edge of a credit card into my finger tips while watching TV to try simulate guitar strings. I even bought a bottle of surgical spirits as I'd read it helps dry out the skin speeding up the process. I never really used it though and to my surprise my fingers toughened up within a really short time, and I've not had that pain at all since. I'd definitely recommend high action steel strings to an adult beginner.

Adam told me to check out www.justinguitar.com, a totally free teaching site. It's an amazing site and it put me on the right track with good structured learning. I feel I'm progressing really well and I decided to start this blog to help me track my progress. It's therefore meant really as a learning tool for me, so it might be quite boring for anyone that stumbles upon it, so forgive me if so.